AIRPORT EXPANSION PROJECT
ROADTOWN Tortola BVI, June 29th, 2012 -- Madam Speaker on May 10 of this year I stood here in this Honorable House and reported on the Government’s intentions to upgrade the Airport Facilities at the Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport. Today Madam Speaker I am here to give an update on the progress we have made thus far.
Madam Speaker since my last report we have contracted with Mr. Winston Wilson who will be the Project Manager on the expansion project. Mr. Wilson is a qualified engineer and has worked on several similar projects in the United States and the Caribbean region. As a matter of fact, Mr. Wilson was the one who was last appointed project manager for the Terrence B. Lettsome International Airport extension in 2001.
The members of the BVI Airports Authority Board have begun the task of reviewing the Impact Assessment study submitted by Kraus Manning at the end of May 2012 as well as the Technical Report submitted by the International Airlines Transport Association (IATA).
Madam Speaker the Airports Authority has commissioned Davidson Ltd., a company in the United Kingdom, to produce a report on feasibility of conducting an approach by high performance jet aircraft to the runway. The company was also charged and has delivered approach charts for the said approach. Davidson, in their report, has recommended an aeronautical study prior to any night operation by high performance jets at the T. B. Lettsome International Airport. This report will be submitted to Air Safety Support International (ASSI) for final approval.
The share nature and importance of this project to the Territory dictate that we pay keen attention to which company or consortium of companies that will be given the contract for development. With that in mind Madam Speaker we have employed a two tier process that will guide our selection.
In step one of this two tier process we will be sending out, as early as next week Monday, an “Expression of Interest” document. In this pre-qualification stage, interested and appropriate companies will be invited to respond to a set of prequalification criteria. This stage is expected to be completed by August 2012.
The second stage of this process will be the “Request for Proposal” commonly referred to as the RFP stage which is scheduled for October 2012. In this stage, the companies selected in stage one will now be required to submit a final detailed proposal for the planning, design, financing, and construction of the project. In this final stage the Government will select the company or consortium of companies best suited to move ahead with the project. This is expected to take place during October and December 2012 and then we begin the final construction of the runway extension which is expected to be completed by December of 2015.
The existing runway will be extended approximately 2000 feet eastward into the sea and approximately 500 feet towards the west.
Madam Speaker there has been quite a number of concerns regarding the negative impact to the environment in the area. Please be assured, Madam Speaker, and I would like to let the people of this Territory know that nothing will be done to negatively impact Trellis Bay. In addition to the elevated embankment we are also considering another engineering solution which involves the construction of an elevated platform on columns. This option, Madam Speaker, will not interfere with the wave action that is necessary to flush the Bay. Therefore, the fear among its users that it would eventually become a “dead bay” can be debunked.
This technology, even though new to the Caribbean region, has already been used elsewhere in the world in the construction of either runways, taxiways or aprons structures. Madam Speaker, one such airport is the London City Airport which was completed in September 2003. Another such airport is the La Guardia Airport visited by the Director of Airports Authority, the project engineer and myself.
And yet another airport on the other side of the Atlantic is the Medeira International Airport to be visited by a delegation in August of this year led by me. Madam Speaker we are also reliably informed that the Authorities in Boston, USA are making plans to extend the Boston Massachusetts Airport runway using similar technology.
Madam Speaker I would also like to report that we have begun dialogue with airlines interested in flying from the mainland US directly to the BVI once the airport runway is extended. The Managing Director, Mr. Denniston Fraser and myself were in New York this week where we met with executives of Jet Blue Airlines on June 25, 2012. This meeting was very encouraging and we are expected to meet with other interested carriers in the coming months.
Madam Speaker, the share magnitude of this project dictates that all due diligence is exercised to ensure that the people of this Territory receive the best possible product. To ensure that this happens, a technical working group, lead by the Project Manager is being assembled to carefully and meticulously review all reports and other documents and recommend to the Steering Committee led by myself on the best way forward.
*************************
DISCLAIMER
This article was posted in its entirety as received by SKNVibes.com. This media house does not correct any spelling or grammatical error within press releases and commentaries. The views expressed therein are not necessarily those of SKNVibes.com, its sponsors or advertisers
British Virgin Islands News